View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How can an observer tell if a communal ceremony is only for the men of the village?
(a) There are guards stationed around the communal ceremony, preventing the women from viewing.
(b) There are no women present anywhere near the ceremony.
(c) The women gather away from the ceremony, and chat with one another.
(d) The titled men and elders sit on stools while the women look on from the fringe like outsiders.

2. Why does Okonkwo worry about his son, Nwoye?
(a) He thinks his son is too aggressive, which might lead him into danger.
(b) He thinks his son is too boastful, which may turn others against him.
(c) Okonkwo thinks his son is too much like his mother and weak like his grandfather.
(d) He thinks his son will not become a musician like he wants him to.

3. What ultimatum is dispatched to Mbaino as a consequence of the murder of the woman from Umuofia?
(a) Deliver the head of the murderer to the people of Umuofia.
(b) The sacrificial offering of one of the daughters of Mbaino.
(c) Delivery to Umuofia a year's worth of the yam harvest as a peace offering.
(d) Choose between war or the offer of a young man and a virgin from Mbaino.

4. Why does Okonkwo beat his second wife, Ojiugo, during the sacred Week of Peace?
(a) She disagrees with what Okonkwo has to say.
(b) She is caught with another man.
(c) She is at a friend's house and does not prepare Okonkwo's afternoon meal.
(d) She cooks a meal that Okonkwo does not like.

5. What are the women's duties after the yams are planted?
(a) They plant kola nuts between the yams, and weed the yams every day.
(b) They make bamboo woven hats for the farmers working in the hot sun.
(c) They make meals for the men working in the fields.
(d) They plant maize, melons, and beans between the mounds. They also weeded the farm three times per planting season.

6. Which men fight in the final wrestling match of the day?
(a) Men elected in each of the nine villages.
(b) The leaders of the teams are made up of the best wrestlers in the nine villages.
(c) Men chosen by the elders from each of the nine villages.
(d) The wealthiest men from each of the nine villages.

7. What does the priestess do when she brings Ezinma out of Agbala's cave?
(a) She doesn't say a word to Okonkwo or Ekwefi, but carries Ezinma back to Okonkwo's compound and places Ezinma in bed.
(b) She comes out of the cave, giving Okonkwo and Ekwefi a lock of Ezinma's hair. She tells them to bury it in the yam field.
(c) She comes out of the cave and tells Okonkwo and Ekwefi that Agbala wants them to leave, or Ezinma will be sacrificed.
(d) She comes out of the cave alone, telling Okonkwo and Ekwefi that Ezinma has to remain in the cave for two days and nights.

8. Why is the big, ancient silk-cotton tree in the playground considered sacred?
(a) The tree holds the spirits of all the ancestors of the clan.
(b) The tree is believed to have been the first tree in existence.
(c) The tree holds all the spirits of the men who died in wars since the beginning of time.
(d) The spirits of good children waiting to be born live in the tree.

9. As Ekwefi and Okonkwo wait outside of Agbala's cave for Ezinma's return, what does Ekwefi think about?
(a) She thinks she will take Ezinma and move away from the village.
(b) She thinks about what must be happening to Ezinma in the cave.
(c) She thinks about how she and Okonkwo can defeat Agbala.
(d) She thinks about when she and Okonkwo were young, and how she left her first husband to be with Okonkwo.

10. What is a man who holds the ozo title forbidden to do?
(a) Drink from the tapping of short palm trees.
(b) Talk to a single woman in public.
(c) Wrestle during the Feast of the New Yam.
(d) Tap the tall palm trees.

11. Okonkwo does not fear war. In the last war he fought, he brought home a souvenir which he drank palm-wine out of. What is this souvenir?
(a) A colorful, clay pot.
(b) A goatskin flask.
(c) A human head.
(d) A woven, bamboo basket.

12. Why do all the women abandon preparing the food for the uri and rush off to the Obierika's crop field?
(a) The locusts landed on the crops and have to be brushed off the leaves.
(b) A fire broke out in the field and the women have to stomp it out.
(c) There is a cow loose in the field eating the crops and the women have to catch it.
(d) A neighbor's child went to the field and started picking the crops.

13. What is used to inform all the men of the Umuofia to meet in the market place the following morning?
(a) The beating of drums in the night.
(b) A group of armed warriors.
(c) The town crier beating on his hollow, metal ogene.
(d) A choir of people singing the message.

14. Ezinma offers to bring Okonkwo's chair to the wrestling match for him. Why did he refuse his daughter's offer?
(a) He will be busy with preparing the wrestlers for the match and wouldn't need the chair.
(b) Men prefer to stand during the wrestling match.
(c) Carrying the chair is a boy's job.
(d) Only grown women carry their husband's chairs.

15. What is the strange event that takes place in the village of Ire that Ofoedo tells Okonkwo and Obierika about?
(a) The children of Ire stopped speaking for two days and went into a trance-like state.
(b) Ogbuefi Ndulue, the oldest man in the Ire village died and upon hearing about it, his wife, Ozoemena, died also.
(c) All the yams planted in the fields rotted during the night from a curse sent by evil spirits.
(d) All the people in the village of Ire awoke in the night from dreams of disasters to come.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the law state in Umuofia if a woman runs away from her husband?

2. How does Okonkwo react to the disastrous growing season that destroy all his yams and the yams of his people?

3. Okonkwo is sitting in his obi with Ikemefuna and Nwoye, eating dried locusts when Ogbuefi Ezeudu comes with a message. What is the message?

4. Under what circumstances will the people of Umuofia consult Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves?

5. How does Ikemenfuna feel after three weeks of illness?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,308 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample